This feature originally appeared in Web Designer issue 190, authored by Matt Gifford and Pete Simmons
Download the full code examples associated with this feature.
Something fascinating has been happening on the web for a while now – pages and sites are connecting in new ways. Sites were once pretty isolated, with inter-connectivity largely shielded and based around hopping from one node to another via link clicks. Until the rise of the portal and then the search engine, there was no collective sense of what context this content had or the relationships that could exist. Google has done the most to change this and fill in those gaps – read between the links, as it were, to revolutionise search, advertising and analytics forever. It has become the glue that binds things together and defines a wider meaning to all the stuff we sift through.
Social networking has built on those principles to give groups of users the same power to define new relationships between web content, using various techniques to wire services into every destination. Popular brands like Twitter, Facebook, Digg and Reddit emerged with buttons we could click to rate and share our favourite pages. Some have gone much further to give deeper access via developer APIs, allowing our sites or apps to exist in a broader sense and go much further.
This month we examine the methods for hooking into three of the biggest names in social networking, with an emphasis on a relative newcomer to the table. Google+ hopes to rival Twitter and Facebook for our social-networking affections and tapping into its services will play a huge part in popularising it across the web. This guide will help you determine what features are on offer and how they can benefit your site while also identifying the essential techniques for integration.
It’s probably not going out on much of a limb to say that you know what Google is and have used some of its services at least once. In fact, if you have ever mentioned the phrase ‘search engine’ or dropped into a conversation that you’ve searched for something online, chances are you’ve also mentioned Google in the same breath. The corporation’s name and branding have become synonymous with online search results and indexing, and for some people the realisation that other search providers exist is redundant.
With having such a heavy influence and share in the global search market, it may seem slightly incongruous that Google has made the move into online social networking – and not just once. Google has tried before (with varied success) to create a social/interactive service under the guises of Google Buzz and Google Wave. Instinctively, the web community is naturally intrigued by any services that Google has to offer, and any new project is eagerly anticipated, digested and commented upon. Sometimes the high expectations that come with ‘being Google’ can lead to criticism, which then leads to lack of adoption and the early demise of a product. Goodbye, Wave.
Understandably there has been a lot of scepticism about Google yet again attempting to break into the social scene with its latest project: Google+. With the likes of Facebook and Twitter already well established, adopted and integrated into our online psyche, you have to ask: what can be offered that we don’t have already? Why should another social-centric application stand out and not just be perceived as ‘another tool to duplicate content’ or ‘another time-waster’? What additional benefits to individual users and business can G+ deliver?
Google is pitching the Google+ project with the emphasis on real-life sharing. Through Google+, individuals now have the innate ability to interact with friends, colleagues and mild acquaintances alike through one portal, enabling them to keep in touch, share information and ideas, and partake in commentary and discussions on anything and everything.
As creative professionals within the web industry, developers and designers have the extended ability to customise web content and actively promote it throughout the online social service to gain benefits in a number of areas. One serious draw is the propagation of information and content with the possibility of gaining exposure within not only the G+ environment, but throughout other Google products and services, including the all-important search engine and rankings.
It would be fairly safe to assume that the majority of people using Google’s new social-centric applications have also used its search facilities and web-development tools at some time or another. The relationship between site indexing and information cataloguing from the search giant has always been incredibly tight and, from a business point of view, they have done an incredible job at tying up all applications and services. Here Google has created a series of packages that act as building blocks that can be used to enhance and streamline the customer experience.
So, what is included within the project? Let’s look at the main features.
Circles
Circles effectively allow you to share content and posts with only those people you wish to see the content, in other words sharing with the people who would benefit from/not be offended by (!) the information.
The basic idea and design of the application centres on the concept of social circles, and the notion that we generally interact and share information with only specific people.
This means you can share the relevant content with the relevant people, without risk of posting something irrelevant (or embarrassing) to family members or mild acquaintances and clogging up their stream with your updates. By separating your contacts into groups using Circles, you have far greater control over who sees what and how you share your information.
Hangouts
Online video chat applications ha been around for a while, but Google+ Hangouts has been targeted towards the spontaneous meetings with your followers and friends. Unlike traditional chat applications, which typically cater for one-to-one communication (with a few exceptions such as Skype), Hangouts allows for up to nine people to join in and share a webcam-based conversation.
Essentially, the concept of Hangouts is based upon the notion of the typical water-cooler discussion, allowing anyone within your circle of friends to turn up and discuss anything and everything with you and whomever else is in the hangout at the time. Google’s aim here was to remove the clinical feel of standard web chats and open it up into a much more friendly, casual environment.
Hangouts is also in the stages of implementing shared notes and sketchpads, screen sharing and Google Docs integration, which will greatly boost the collaborative work aspect of the service.
Messenger
For anyone already using a Google-based application such as Gmail or iGoogle, the built-in chat functionality isn’t necessarily anything new. Messenger, however, allows you to set up and partake in group messaging with everyone and anyone within your selected circle. Want to chat to just your friends about which restaurant to go to this evening? Or discuss work projects with only your colleagues? Messenger was built for this interaction, again without pestering all of your friends with chat they may not be involved in. Unlike Hangouts, Messenger is purely a text-based chat application with no video element.